Top 25 people I look forward to seeing at VMworld 2016

I recently did a post of the top sessions that I look forward to seeing at VMworld and I thought I would follow it up with the top people that I look forward to seeing there as a well. First off, this is no reflection on anyone not on the list, this is purely personal preference based on relationships that I have built up over the years. So if you are not on this list please don’t get offended, I look forwarding to meeting all old friends at VMworld and making new ones and I’m sure there are names I just plain forgot. VMworld serves as that one special time of the year were the virtual community gets physical which is one of the best parts of VMworld. So without further ado and really in no particular order:

David Marshall – Close friend from I met back in the early days of Hyper9, always a pleasure to catch-up with David at VMworld.

Eric Sloof – It’s Mr. Sloof, truly a great and interesting guy, an OG blogger and the face of VMworld TV.

Duncan Epping – Who wouldn’t want to run into the #1 blogger and a very down to earth person.

Cormac Hogan – The legendary Mr. Storage at VMware from across the pond.

Jason Boche – An old dear friend back from the early VMTN and blogging days.

Doug Hazelman – Another good friend from the early days of virtualization that has had an amazing career at Veeam.

Rick Vanover – It’s the Rickatron, another Veeam legend and someone who I have worked with on various Veeam projects.

John Troyer – The inventor of VMware social media, VMTN, vExperts, etc, a dear friend who I always look forward to catching up with.

Scott Lowe – Another OG blogger, we live 30 min from each other in CO but only see each other at distant events.

Chris Wahl – Up and coming all-star in the VMware community, Chris is an all around fun person to know and hang with.

Mike Foley – I’ve known Mike for a long time and fondly remember hanging and drinking beer together at past VMworlds.

Tony Dunn – One of the original VMware social guys, Tony was always behind the scenes but is a big part of VMware’s social media success.

Chris Wolf – I’ve known Chris back to his Gartner days and always enjoy the conversations we have at VMworld.

Andy Banta – A new friend, we share a common passion for storage and VVols.

Howard Marks – Hard to not love Howard, he’s like the big storage teddy bear of the VMware and storage community.

Jane Rimmer – Long time community supporter and truly a wonderful and fun person.

Marc Farley – Industry storage vet that I fondly remember him making me do a Cab Cam video with him back when I first started with HP.

Simon Seagrave – Dear friend and one of the nicest person’s you would ever meet, fellow vChat podcast member.

David Davis – Ditto with David, have known him from back in his TrainSignal days.

Patrick Redknap – Patrick’s a party in a vBox and a lot of fun, I fondly remember drinking at the pool bar with him right before I had to go in and give a presentation to the vExperts at VMworld.

Rawlinson Rivera – Captain VSAN and a huge ball of vEnergy, had fun hanging with him at smaller VMUG events and VMworld.

Chad Sakac – Very approachable and nice guy, had a few late night bar convo’s with him and he was a teammate on the ESXi quiz show at VMworld.

William Lam – Very humble and nice guy and a prolific blogger, always a pleasure to chat with him.

Pat Gelsinger – It’s Pat, who wouldn’t want to meet him, Pat and I have a long history of meeting at VMworld and I can honestly say he is one of the most humble and down to earth CEO’s I have ever met.

Look forward to seeing you all at VMworld and here’s a few pics with some of the above mentioned people! (Calvin you’re not on the list as I see you all the time)